Something Has Happened

Something Has Happened (1987)

Någonting har hänt

As the AIDS epidemic was spreading in 1987, the Swedish government commissioned Roy Andersson to make an educational film about the disease. In these twenty or so monotone scenes, Andersson criticizes the medical community for its dehumanizing and racist tendencies when researching HIV and AIDS.

Date of release
1987-03-27
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (25)
Runtime
24m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Roy Andersson

Casting

Interesting facts

Something Happened is a Swedish film directed by Roy Andersson. The film was conceived as an educational film about AIDS, but raised controversy and was withdrawn. Today the film is regarded as a significant step in the development of the style seen in the director's later and more acclaimed films.

Production

In 1986, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare contracted Roy Andersson to write and direct an information film about AIDS to be shown in Swedish schools and to military conscripts. At the time, Andersson had not made a film since the financially unsuccessful Giliap from 1975, and had since then mainly worked with television commercials. Before the film was finished, however, the Board asked Andersson to abandon the project.

The film introduces what would become the director's signature style, with static camera and long takes featuring hand-picked amateur actors in grim make-up. The style had been hinted at in Giliap and was developed further in Andersson's commercials, later to be even more refined in the feature films Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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